


The Voice and the Vessel: Small Problems

by VanillaGiddyup



Series: The Voice and the Vessel [4]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:49:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22442080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VanillaGiddyup/pseuds/VanillaGiddyup
Summary: Robin has a long day.
Relationships: Chiki | Tiki/My Unit | Reflet | Robin
Series: The Voice and the Vessel [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1143932
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	The Voice and the Vessel: Small Problems

"Robin, I have Beauclair's agent on the line. He's asking for an extra four million a year and he wants his son to work as his bat boy." I rubbed my temples. I knew the offer we'd given him was too low and I knew the call was coming, but I didn't need to get this call on top of a hundred other things on my plate today. Especially since this was the fifth call from an agent since I'd gotten back from my lunch.

"Tell him we'll make it two and give him an opt out for the last two years. I can give his son the job. I'll even help him find a good school for his kids." Beauclair had a bit of a reputation as a prima donna, but he was also the best free agent on the market and I needed his bat in the lineup. Didn't mean I wasn't going to negotiate.

"Hi Jim, listen, he says two million and we'll add a player option for the last two years." Ted, my general manager, stepped back into his office to continue the call. There would be some back and forth hemming and hawing, but he'd take the offer. An opt out was too juicy since I knew Beauclair would expect to have some big years. I'd shell out the big money later on if he played as well for us as he had in Ferox.

I turned back to my paperwork and tried and failed for the tenth time to read through all the new contracts we had coming in. I knew this was never going to happen. I wasn't going to get through them all today. I needed to get away from this. My phone buzzed which snapped me out of my reverie. I pulled it out and glanced at the name. Mar-Mar. I answered it.

"Hi dad," came a strained voice before it continued without preamble, "Nowi came down with something and she's coughing up fire. Nah and Darren and mom are busy and I can't get Morgan on the phone so can you come watch the babies until I can get her some help?" I glanced down at the stack of paperwork in front of me.

"Be there in a few," I said.

"Thanks dad," he said and hung up. I tapped the intercom on my desk phone.

"Dierdre, can you tell Ted I had to leave?" Dierdre was my secretary. She was the daughter of season ticket holders and had asked me for a job right out of school. I respected her boldness and had given her a shot. She'd taken to the work like a duck to water and had become an important part of my life even before she'd married my son.

"Should I tell him why?"

"Family business," I said and released the button. Dierdre understood that family came first for me. I stacked up the contracts and put them in my In tray, stood up, grabbed my jacket and left my office. I saw Ted still on the phone in his office but he wasn't looking at me. I walked past Dierdre's desk and gave her a brief wave goodbye.

"Bye, dad," she said as I breezed past her.

"Say hi to Sigurd," I said without looking back. I didn't mean to be so short with her, but I needed to get going. She would understand.

I took the elevator down to the garage and rushed to my car. I got into the driver's seat and turned the key. Nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing happened. I tried a third time. Same result. I smacked the steering wheel in frustration and popped the hood. Stupid me leaving the light on.

I reached into the glove box and pulled out the tome I left sitting in there then hopped out of the car. I walked around to the front, murmured the spell and let loose a jolt of electricity, sat back in the car and tried the key. Finally it started. I pulled out of my space and drove to the gate. There was another car sitting there. I waited behind it while I let the driver pay to get out of the lot.

The driver did not pay to get out of the lot. Instead the car sat there for several minutes and I saw the driver lean out more than once which made it clear he was talking to the security guard. I honked my horn and they looked back at me. I didn't recognize the driver, which didn't mean a whole lot, but the guard obviously recognized me because he hurried the driver through the gate. He held the gate up to let me through and I held up a hand in thanks and to make it clear I wasn't upset. It took a deep breath to calm down as I pulled out onto the back street. I made a right and saw that the main street was full of heavy traffic.

I thumbed a button on my steering wheel and cycled through the names on the center display until I saw Marth's. I pushed another button and the phone started ringing. It took three rings for him to pick up.

"Sorry, traffic is terrible. It's going to take me a few extra minutes." I heard loud crying in the background.

"Please get here as soon as you can dad. I need help. And if you can stop and get some cold medicine on your way over that would be great. I hope that's all she's got but she at least needs to stop coughing."

"I'll see if I can. It's pretty bad here," I said as I finally managed to turn onto the main street.

"Thanks a bunch—Kyle, stop that! Go sit down! -Sorry dad. I've gotta go. Love you." The call dropped. I turned on my radio to drown out the sound of honking horns and noise. This was the drawback of running a team in the middle of a city. It meant awful traffic even in the middle of the day. Besides that there was a holiday coming up and there were events bringing more tourists into the city.

I was trying to stay patient but there was so much piling up. On a whim I thumbed through my contacts a second time and dialed. The phone rang five times and my heart sank when I realized she hadn't been able to answer. It made sense, she was visiting some of the faithful, but it was still disappointing.

"I'm sorry, beloved, but I cannot answer the phone at the moment. If you leave a message I will answer as soon as possible." There was a beep.

"Hi sweetheart, calling to check in. Have to go to Marth's house for a little while so I might be home late. Love you." I hung up. I briefly considered calling her other phone, but if she wasn't answering our private line she probably wouldn't answer her other line. The radio started playing some random music I didn't recognize, but even that was starting to irritate me. I changed the station to sports talk radio. The hosts were, of course, discussing my team, so I kept going. It was more music.

Traffic started to clear and I made it out of the city center towards the suburbs where Marth lived. I looked at the clock and realized that the ten minute trip had already taken me over twenty, but I decided I should stop anyway. I glanced around and a few minutes later saw a drug store. I pulled in and hopped out. It was cold enough out that I had to throw on my jacket. I hoped it wouldn't draw attention since I had worn the one without my name on it.

The drug store wasn't busy, but there was someone at the register who sounded like she was arguing with the cashier. I hoped it would be over by the time I got there. I went to the medicine aisle and found some extra strength cold medicine, then grabbed a bottle of water and a six pack of my favorite beer. I'd split it with Tiki when I got home. I walked up the register and it turned out that the argument hadn't stopped.

"-says they're two for four gold, so why are you charging me six?"

"That was last week's sale, ma'am," said the cashier, who looked like he was barely out of school, "I can't help you."

"Then I'm going to need to speak to your manager, son," said the woman whose face was growing redder by the second.

"She's not here right now. She'll be back in a few minutes." I thought the woman would hit him in the face.

"Then you'd better hope he can fix this when he gets here or so help me-" I slammed some gold on the counter.

"That should cover it, right?" I said. The woman spun around to face me and I thought she was going to start yelling in my face until she realized I was a foot taller than she was. She wilted back and her expression became sullen. A look of relief washed over the cashier's face as he counted the money. The woman still looked annoyed, but I couldn't spare the energy to care how she felt. She might have been having a bad day too for all I knew. She gathered her things and walked out, glaring at me the whole way.

"Thank you sir," said the cashier. I nodded and placed my things on the counter. He started scanning them. "Are you a Wyverns fan?" It took me a second to realize that he had noticed my jacket and it wasn't because he recognized me.

"Oh, yeah, you could say that," I said.

"Too bad about this year, huh? I really thought we had it." I nodded.

"Bats went cold. We'll get it next year."

"I know. Especially if we get Beauclair. I hear he wants to come here."

"Yeah," I said as I handed him my credit card, "but he'll probably be expensive. Those guys are always asking for more money."

"Still, I think Robin will go for him. He's the best player on the market and I think he'll be a good fit in the outfield." He swiped my card and kept talking. "Do you think we'll get any decent pitching? I know the reliever class isn't great but I think we could—"

"I do," I said as I took my card back, "and I'm sorry, but I'm in kind of a hurry right now. Take care, kid."

"Thank you sir!" he said, a little surprised by me cutting him off, "and have a nice day!" I walked out. He'd probably realize who I was before long when my name showed up on the receipt so I wanted to leave before that happened. I hurried back to my car and pulled out of the lot. There was more traffic, but not enough to really delay me.

I made it the rest of the way to Marth's house without too much incident. Unfortunately I also made it without a call back or even a text. She was probably busy with the ceremony she was attending, but I still wanted to hear her voice. It would be a welcome relief from the day I'd been having.

I hopped out of the car and walked up to the door. As I did a jet of fire went shooting out one of the side windows, which I hoped was open, and I heard crying. I opened the door without knocking and saw Marth's 4-year-old son Kyle running around the living room with a roll of paper towels trailing behind him. He was laughing uproariously which meant that it was Forde, Kyle's 2-year-old brother, was crying in his bedroom. I didn't see Marth anywhere and assumed he was in his bedroom with Nowi. I passed through the living room towards his room.

"I'm here!" I called out to him.

"Thank the gods! I'm here in our room!" I made it to the door and saw that it was open. Marth was kneeling over the bed where Nowi was lying down. She was bundled up but looked like she was still shivering. "Dad!" He nearly ran over to me and grabbed the medicine out of my hand. "Sorry, I need to give her this."

"Don't worry about it," I said, "hey Nowi. How are you feeling?"

"Oh...hi Robin," she said a little weakly. She sounded tired and she coughed a couple of times. No fire came out. "I feel pretty bad. I hope it's not serious. Thanks for coming."

"Of course," I said gently. "You should get to the doctor."

"Yeah, he called and made me—" she coughed a few more times "—an appointment."

"I need to get going, dad," said Marth. "I need to get her there and I need to get the kids from school." Without waiting for an answer he picked Nowi up and carried her to the door. I followed a step behind him and Kyle stopped long enough to watch his father carrying his mother.

"Daddy?"

"Daddy has to go out, kiddo. Mama doesn't feel good. You be good for grandpa, okay?" Kyle looked at me and back at his father.

"Okay!" He said cheerfully. He started running in a circle again although he had, thankfully, run out of paper towels. I made my way into Forde's room where I saw him standing up against the railing of his crib. He was crying loudly and there was some food on his onesie that looked like it had been there a while. I assumed he had spat it up the last time Marth had fed him and there hadn't been time to clean it.

I walked over to the closet and got a fresh onesie and a diaper from the package. I could already tell from the smell that that was the problem. Marth had probably planned to change him, but hadn't gotten the chance with how sick Nowi was. That was fine, I could do it. I had enough experience.

I laid out a mat on the floor and put the diaper and onesie next to it. Then I turned and gently lifted Forde out of the crib. He didn't get any quieter after I lifted him up, but I could deal with it. I started to shush him, but he didn't get any quieter from that either. It was fine. I could deal with that too. I started to change him and he started crying louder. That drew Kyle's attention and he started yelling at his brother to be quiet. It was fine. I could handle it.

I finally got the dirty diaper off of Forde and I tossed it into the garbage can. I finished changing him as quickly as I could, put the clean onesie on him, and picked him up again. I held him in one hand while I packed up the garbage bag with my other hand and walked it out towards the back door. On the way I smacked my shin on the coffee table and had to bite back a cry of pain but still let out a hiss, which made Forde start to cry again. Kyle was still running around the living room and started jumping on the couch. I told him to get down but he didn't listen.

It took some time to navigate through their house while I had a screaming child in my hands, but I finally managed to get the garbage bag out into their can in the yard so I didn't have to deal with the smell anymore. I brought Forde back inside and put him down long enough to wash my hands. Then I picked him up and started bouncing him up and down while I tried to shush him as gently as possible. He took a while, but it was fine. I would handle it. I got him to stop crying and brought him over to the couch to sit down. Just as I did my phone rang and the sound scared him into crying again.

I fumbled for my phone to get it to stop ringing while I tried to shush Forde again. Whatever I was doing must have been funny, because Kyle was doubled over laughing on the floor. That was fine. I would handle it. I finally got my phone out and answered it without even bothering to look at the number.

"What?" I said much more shortly than I wanted to.

"Dad I need to talk to you about the wedding," said a voice I recognized as Lucina's. "I just had the florist cancel on me and now Sal is saying that his parents don't like the venue and want him to change it and the caterer says that if we change the venue it's going to cost a bunch more money and—"

"Lulu," I said, "I'm really sorry, but I just don't have time for this right now."

"Dad please this is really important I need to get this stuff settled...is someone crying?"

"I'm at Marth's watching the kids," I said, "and it isn't going very well." Kyle had stood up and was banging one of his toys against a wall. "Kyle, you need to stop," I said. He didn't listen and his banging made his brother cry harder. That was fine. I would handle it...probably.

"...Bye dad," she said and the phone went silent. I stood up and went to get some food for Forde. I wasn't sure if he was hungry, but it was really the best I could do to distract him. There was a jar in the fridge so I took it out and tried to feed him. I managed to get his attention long enough to give him some food which quieted him for a minute. Kyle apparently took that as an open invitation to run up and start tugging on my shirt.

"Pop-pop, I wanna play horse," he said with an expectant look up at me.

"Just a minute," I said to him.

"I wanna play now!" he said a little louder as I fed Forde another spoonful of food.

"Grandpa is feeding your brother right now," I said, "you need to wait."

"No! I wanna play now!" He stamped his foot down and accidentally landed on mine. I was wearing shoes and he was very small, so it didn't hurt, but it put him off balance. He landed on his bottom, which wouldn't hurt him but was enough to make him cry. That was enough to, once again, set off Forde. It was...not fine. I put down the spoon and leaned against the counter. I couldn't take it anymore. It was just too damn much. I hung my head and started to rub my temple with my free hand while I rocked Forde with my other hand. It wasn't working. Nothing was working. Nothing about this entire damn day was working.

"Please...be quiet," I said in desperation. It worked as well as expected. I said it a little louder. I wasn't yelling, I hadn't even properly raised my voice, but it was more of a command than it had been the first time. It worked about as well as commanding a four-year-old normally did. I tried once more, a little louder. It still didn't work. I was at the end of my rope. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. And I had let down my son.

"Dad?" I looked towards the door where the voice was coming from. "Gods, dad, are you okay?"

"Lulu," I said as I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders. She walked over and took Forde from me. Kyle noticed her and stopped crying immediately.

"An' Lulu!" he said with a delighted squeal. She patted his head, then kissed me on the cheek.

"Sorry it took me so long," she said, "I was almost all the way home when I called so I had to fly and it took me a bit." She tapped the dragonstone she wore around her neck. "This was almost dead. Gonna need a new one soon."

"It's...fine," I said as I squeezed her free hand. I noticed she had let her hair go back to its natural color, which was the same pale blonde as mine. I appreciated that. "You want to talk about the wedding stuff? You know cost won't be an issue for me." She shook her head.

"Go home," she said, "I'll explain everything to Marth when he gets back. Dad, you look like a wreck. Get some rest. My wedding plans can wait." I gave her a quick peck on the forehead.

"Thanks, sweetheart. I really appreciate this."

"Go," she said a little more emphatically. "Rest." I nodded and walked back out to my car. I had wonderful children.

I sat in my car, started it up, and got back on the road. Traffic was much less terrible now that it was later in the afternoon and my music station of choice was playing an uninterrupted block of music. I checked my messages and saw that I didn't have any calls, but even that wasn't terribly disappointing. I was just happy that the day was almost over.

I made it back home without extra stops or other incidents, parked, got in the shower, cleaned myself off, got out, and pulled on my favorite bathrobe and slippers. I was just about to sit down to eat a snack and watch some TV when I heard the door open. I only had a few seconds to register who it was when Tiki nearly bowled me over.

"Oh, beloved," she said without preamble, "I had the most awful day today. The ceremony lasted so much longer than was necessary and there were so many people who asked so many questions even when I told them I needed to depart and there were troublemakers who caused problems that nearly resulted in an evacuation and then the food never arrived and oh it was simply awful I have been waiting for so long to see you and I'm so glad you're home." She rested against my chest and squeezed me tighter. I kissed her hair, then one ear.

"It's fine," I said, "I'm here now."

"...Beloved, something is wrong," she said. "I can hear it in your voice. Something happened to you."

"It's fine," I said again, "don't worry about it."

"But I must," she said. "Clearly you had an awful day as well. Please, tell me about it. Let me relieve you of your burdens." She looked up at me and gazed into my eyes. "I can see it. Sit and tell me. I will even massage your shoulders." One of her hands started exploring up my back. "I can tell you need it."

"No," I said, "you had a bad day. Don't worry about mine."

"Robin, your welfare is as important to me as my own. Now I demand that you sit down and tell me what troubles you." I smiled and kissed her, this time full on the mouth.

"As the Voice commands," I said as I sat with her on the couch. As she started working her magic on my muscles and I started explaining everything that happened to me I could only think one thing.

I was the luckiest man alive.


End file.
